Page 57 of Wellspring
“Erick, kneel up over me,” he urged. “It will be easier on you this way, and you can take me inside as slowly as you need to.”
Erick bent down to seize Cade’s mouth in a needy, demanding kiss before straddling his hips.
Cade reached back, dragging his cock up and down the crease between Erick’s cheeks, biting his lips at the need to let Erick take control.
He wanted nothing more than to roll Erick to his back and drive into him, but he had to let Erick do this at his own pace.
When Erick’s hand closed over his own, he slid his palms around to brace Erick’s hips, hoping he would be able to last long enough for Erick to take him inside.
He and Erick cried out together when Erick thrust down, taking all of Cade in one strong push. Erick let out a ragged breath, not moving for a long moment, while Cade struggled not to give in to the insistent, exquisite pressure.
Cade caressed Erick’s flanks as tension mounted between them.
He had to give Erick the time he needed to adjust to Cade’s presence inside him, no matter that it had been Erick’s choice to take him in so quickly, but fuck, he didn’t know how much longer he could stay still.
After what seemed like hours, Erick shifted a little, though it only ratcheted the tension higher as Cade fought to lie there and let Erick explore.
Finally Erick rose up onto his knees, beginning to move more freely. Cade rocked his hips to meet Erick’s downward thrust and shot his lover a sly grin. “Ride me, cowboy.”
“Ah, now you do not complain that I take the reins?” Erick pushed down and circled his hips, raising a smug eyebrow when it made Cade gasp.
“When I’m not worried about this”—Cade ran his fingers over Erick’s scar—”causing you pain, I’ll flip you over and mount you as hard and fast as any stallion, but until then, you set the pace.”
Erick leaned onto his elbow, bracketing Cade’s chest so he could tweak at Cade’s nipples. “This is… so much more than I ever dreamed. It is good for you?”
Cade sat up enough that he could capture Erick’s lips with his own.
He never wanted to hear such doubt in Erick’s voice again, not in relation to them.
“It is everything I could have hoped for and more,” Cade promised when he broke the kiss.
“That you are here with me at all, much less that you would let me be the first to touch you this way…. You are a gift beyond price, one I will spend the rest of my life cherishing if you will let me.”
He didn’t know what he’d do if Erick said no, but since Erick leaned forward to kiss him and picked up a rolling rhythm with his hips that had Cade struggling to keep up, he hoped that was a yes.
He dropped back onto his elbows, the better to brace himself so he could match Erick’s gait.
When Erick reached for his own cock, though, Cade slid the rest of the way to his back so he could bat Erick’s hand aside and replace it with his own.
He wanted to be the one to lavish pleasure on his lover tonight.
He might not be able to swear yet that Erick would never have to take care of himself again, but not while Cade was right there in bed with him.
He bent his knees, planted his feet, and thrust harder, determined to push Erick over the edge before giving in himself. “What do you need?”
“The head,” Erick grunted. “Your thumb.”
Cade swiped his thumb over the slick tip of Erick’s cock and through the slit.
Erick threw his head back with a shout, every muscle in his body going tense as release swept through him.
The exquisite pressure on Cade’s cock stole the last of his control and he followed Erick over the edge into oblivion.
Erick gasped and panted roughly as he lifted enough to let Cade slide out and nestle beside him. Cade wondered if it still hurt Erick to breathe, but he didn’t want to break the tender mood by asking.
“Now I am claimed.” Erick lay with his head pillowed on Cade’s shoulder, drawing patterns through the streaks of milky fluid on Cade’s chest and stomach.
“I’d say you claimed me too.” He lifted Erick’s hand to his lips and sucked his fingers clean. “Anyway, you’ve been mine since the moment I saw you on the dock in Galveston. You just didn’t realize it right away.”
“I scarce dared to hope such a strong, capable man would return my regard.” Erick raised his chin until he could reach Cade’s lips. “You were everything I wanted and everything I dreamed to become.”
Humbled, Cade returned the kiss with all the emotion swelling inside him.
When Erick broke the kiss to lay his head on Cade’s shoulder again, Cade said, “You don’t need to become me to belong here.
You’ve carved out your own place, which is better than trying to fill someone else’s boots.
But as for the rest, you have me. For as long as you want me, I’m yours. ”
He stopped short of asking for a declaration in return, not because he doubted Erick’s feelings but because making such a commitment without observing the rituals he had grown up with seemed wrong.
Still, now that Reichardt was dealt with and Erick was on the mend, he’d see to things as quickly as he could, because having tasted a hint of what life with Erick could be like, he did not want to go back to the way things were before.
Erick spooned into Cade, an arm around his waist and a leg over his, and pressed a kiss to the side of Cade’s neck.
“And I am yours,” he murmured sleepily. Cade listened as Erick’s breathing, still a little uneven from the exertion or the injury, slowed and deepened before letting his own eyes fall closed.
They’d both need their rest for what he had planned when they woke up.